The Post Aliyah Series
by 88Keys
Summary: Series of brief one-shots dealing with the time directly after "Aliyah" through the events of "Truth or Consequences." Varying points of view. Mostly Ziva, Tony, and McGee. No pairings; just the friendships that make this team so special.
1. The Garden

Authors Notes: I was very inspired by the ending of "Aliyah" and the entire episode "Truth or Consequences." This started as a one-shot episode tag and just grew into more and more tags. Each chapter is a brief stand-alone story and does not necessarily flow right into the next one. But I've chosen to post them as a series because they all deal with the same time period and give us an idea of what might have happened in those in-between times that we don't see on the episodes. I hope you enjoy them. :)

The Garden

Episode Tag to "Aliyah"- set while Ziva is being held captive

By 88Keys

6/4/09

* * *

Dirt under her fingernails.

Blood, actually, but she could pretend. Pretend the aches and pains were from being on her hands and knees, digging and weeding and planting.

She had not known she loved gardening until she moved to Washington. Her landlord had given her free reign over an abandoned flower box behind the building.

After working a job...no, after living a life filled with pain and crime and death, there was something satisfying in bringing life to the world. Even if it was just plants. To her surprise, she found tranquility in the garden. She liked the feel of the warm soil moving through her fingers. Loved the sight of multi-colored blooms that greeted her each morning. Felt a sense of accomplishment as they grew, from small to big to even bigger. Even on the darkest days, they were there to greet her in the morning, and to console her in the evening.

When he struck her, she could close her eyes and think of the marigolds, standing bright and defiant in the sun.

When the silence hurt her ears, she thought of the impatients, small and delicate, growing together en masse. She couldn't bear for the plants to stand in neat rows. They had to be strong, like an army, shoulder to shoulder and covering the entire space.

And when the darkness settled and it was all too much to bear, she thought of the lilies, her favorites. The most beautiful of flowers. Tall and elegant and regal.

"_Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I say to you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."*_

She had placed them on Tali's grave. On Ari's grave.

She wondered if someone would place them on her own.

*_Matthew 6:28-29_


	2. The River

Author's Note: This was written before "Truth or Consequences" aired, so it may not quite line up with what we saw there. It was my ideas about what Tony and McGee might have been thinking or doing after Ziva left.

"The River"

Sequel to "The Garden"

By 88Keys

8/21/09

* * *

The rain poured down the windows in smooth streams, as it had all day. The office was quiet, as most everyone had left for the weekend ahead. An occasional peal of thunder broke the quiet. The steady, unchanging rain soaked the grass and bounced of the surface of the river.

It had rained like this when Kate died, and when Gibbs almost died, and he couldn't help but think that it must be a sign. But there was no certainty, and that unknowing was the worst part.

"Special Agent McGee?" A soft female voice interrupted his melancholy. He turned from the window, where he had been standing, off and on, for most of the afternoon. It was Agent Cooper, the new probie who had taken Ziva's place. She was timid and unsure, and he couldn't really blame her. She was the third replacement they'd had since Ziva left.

They had been hard on all of them. Taking out the loss and anger on those who were assigned the impossible task of replacing her, because it made them feel better. It should have, anyway.

"Here's my finished report." She looked at him hopefully, searching for approval.

"It looks fine," he said, glancing at the report but not really seeing it. "But it goes to Agent Gibbs, not me. Just leave it on his desk."

"OK," she nodded, looking relieved. As he watched her set down the report and turn to leave, he felt a pang of guilt.

"Hey, Cooper," he called from the window.

She turned nervously. "Yes, sir?"

"You don't have to call me 'sir.' Or 'special agent.' It's just 'McGee.'"

She nodded again. "Have a good weekend, sir- I mean, McGee."

"You, too," he replied without feeling. He watched her go, then turned back to the window.

"She's not going to come swimming up the river, you know." It was DiNozzo, who, until then, had been silently watching the scene play out from his desk.

McGee frowned. "Not now, Tony, OK? I really don't want to hear it."

"Well, why else would you have you been glued to that window for the past week? Want me to ask the janitor to move your desk over there?"

McGee sighed. Frustration rose within, but he was too drained to really fight. He turned from the window, towards his desk.

"She's not coming back," Tony said, softly but firmly.

"Why?" McGee snapped. "Why not? What really happened in Israel? What happened between you two, to make her leave without even saying goodbye?"

He saw the slight change in DiNozzo's expression which meant buttons had been pushed but he wasn't over the edge yet.

"_I_, didn't do anything, _Agent McGee._ She wanted to stay in Israel. New assignment. Global war on terror, and all that. "She's Mossad. Daddy's little spy. Always has been, always will be. Did you forget that? Did you really think she could be one of us?"

McGee glared. "She was, and you know it. You should have told her how you felt about her."

"You should have, too."

Any rebuttal would have indicated that he had hit home, so McGee ignored the statement altogether. "She could have at least said goodbye. Sent an email, a postcard, something."

Tony shrugged.

McGee sighed. "You're a real ass sometimes, DiNozzo."

Tony grinned. "Part of my charm." He stood and pulled on his jacket. "I'm going out for a beer or ten. Want to come along? I bet I can make you forget her, at least for tonight."

McGee shook his head and turned back to the window.

"Suit yourself.

McGee waited until he heard the elevator doors close. Through the approaching dusk, he could just see the drops of water dancing off the surface of the river.

_Dancing..._

He turned to the now-empty office, and a memory came back to him, so sudden and clear that he nearly gasped.

_He had caught her, once._

_It was just after she joined the team. They had pulled the weekend shift. He had come in early, but of course, she was already there, alone. He had taken the stairs in a half-hearted effort to get in shape. As he peered through the window in the stairwell door he could see her, standing in the middle of the bullpen, arms straight out at her sides. She slowly crossed one arm over and leaned to the left. She lifted the opposite leg. Took a few steps, on pointe. A few more quick steps, then she was leaping through the air like a gazelle._

_Leap, twirl, leap...He watched, breathless with amazement (was there anything she couldn't do?) as she moved with grace and power across the floor. He felt a thrill at seeing something that should have been forbidden. To see a previously unknown side to this beautiful and interesting new companion. _

_She paused in mid-step, as if she felt someone watching her. He ducked back behind the door. When he looked again, she was calmly sitting down at her desk. _

_He made a big noisy production of opening the door and entering the room. "Good morning, Ziva!"_

"_Good morning, McGee," she replied calmly, not the least bit out of breath. "You seem to be in a good mood."_

_He grinned. "I think it's going to be an interesting day."_

McGee blinked once, twice. He was completely alone in the dimly-lit bullpen. The ghosts of his memory had vanished.

He took a deep breath, then grabbed his cell phone and hit the speed dial.

"Hey, DizNozzo? I….I changed my mind. Wait up."

THE END


	3. The Last Night

The Last Night

By 88Keys

Post-Aliyah series, part 3

Finished 11/22/09

_This could be the last night of my life._

A combination of that thought and jet-lag was keeping him awake. If this was his last night on Earth, he sure hadn't expected to spend it in a foreign country, on an uncomfortable government-issue cot, with his teammates but somehow still very much alone. He missed his apartment, and his dog, and Abby, and his family...and what the hell was he doing here in Somalia, anyway?

"Tony?" he whispered into the darkness, hoping his partner wasn't asleep.

"Yeah?"

He paused, reconsidering. It was too late at night to have this conversation again. Or was it daytime? It was still daytime, back in Washington...

"Nothing."

"Spit it out, Probie. You already woke me up."

"It's just...well, she could still be alive."

"She's not."

"You don't know that."

They had had this argument, several times already. Tim's optimistic nature not letting him believe that Ziva was really dead, and Tony's pessimism refusing to believe that she might still be alive.

"We didn't give up on you, when everyone thought you were dead."

"Don't go there, McGee."

"Why?"

"It's late."

"Not in Washington. My brain is still on Eastern Time."

"Good night, McGee."

McGee felt himself growing annoyed by Tony's abrupt dismissal. "Maybe I want to go there. How can you just give up, based on some possibly faulty intelligence about a ship we don't even know for sure that she was on?"

"I don't want to think about her not being dead, OK?"

McGee was incredulous. This was new. "Why?"

He heard DiNozzo shuffle on his cot. Probably turning towards him.

"Because," he answered, slowly, deliberately. "Some things are worse than dying, McGee."

McGee frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked, though his mind was already taking him where Tony was going.

"If Ziva didn't die on the ship, then there's a very real possibility that she's being held prisoner. By terrorists. Do you know what terrorists do to women prisoners? Particularly to Jewish ones?"

He didn't answer, because he knew. His brain had already taken him there weeks ago, but he had stubbornly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. The thought of..._that_ happening to Ziva made him feel sick.

The thought that they had left her there for weeks to suffer that kind of torment was even worse.

"Yeah," Tony responded to his silence. "That's what I thought. But anyway, this mission isn't about Ziva."

"Then why are we doing this again?"

"Saleem needs to be stopped, Probie."

McGee sighed into the darkness. "Someone else will take his place. There's always going to be another Saleem in the world."

"By that logic, we might as well turn in our badges and become accountants. There's always going to be another terrorist, or another murderer or drug dealer or smuggler. You know that."

"It's more than that, Tony, and you know it. This plan...it's..."

"Reckless?" DiNozzo guessed. "Dangerous? Stupid?"

"I was going to say suicide," McGee finished.

"Look, I know you're scared, Probie-"

"Like you're not," McGee said harshly, partly to convince himself. Tony was so good at not acting scared, at playing it cool.

"Did I say I wasn't?" He heard DiNozzo take a deep breath. "Look, Tim, if you want to back out of this, I understand. I kind of pushed you into it, anyway. I can do this alone."

McGee snorted. "Yeah, right."

"I know you've got family to think about. Did you tell them you were coming here?"

"Are you kidding?" It was more or less true. He hadn't told them, but he had left a letter, just in case. He wondered if Sarah had found it yet. He could picture her in his mind, reading and reacting. First mad, then scared. She would make phone calls. She probably wouldn't tell their parents, at least, not right away. But they would find out the truth sooner or later.

"Well, maybe you-"

"I'm not backing out, DiNozzo," McGee said firmly. "You can't do it alone. Plus, you'd never let me live it down."

"You're right about that," Tony agreed. McGee could tell he was grinning. "See you in the morning, Probie. Get some sleep. You're gonna need it."

He heard Tony turn back over on his side, effectively ending the discussion. McGee shut his eyes and sighed, but he didn't sleep. He lay awake for hours, listened to the sounds of unfamiliar desert insects and night creatures and trying to imagine he was in his own bed back home.

_This may be my last night of my life._

And all he could do was lie there.

THE END


	4. Flight

Flight

PA Series, Part 4

By 88Keys

11/29/09

Dirt under her fingernails, but not for much longer.

She picked at the dirt absent-mindedly, trying to scrape it from under one overgrown fingernail with another on the opposite hand. There was nothing else to do, at the moment.

The C-130 plane was not known for a quiet, comfortable ride, but somehow her teammates managed to sleep, or at least to pretend to. Tony was on her right, head back, snoring softly as he slept off whatever drugs he had been given. His left hand had come to rest on her right knee. McGee was to her left, his head lolled over against her right shoulder.

It was the first gentle, non-violent physical contact she had had in months, and she did not push them away.

She was tired as well, but sleep would not come. She kept picking at the dirt under her nails, and trying to rub it off her palms, and it suddenly occurred to her that this was the first time she had even cared about being dirty in months. Soon she would be back home, taking a hot shower, scrubbing the filth of the camp off her battered body.

_A hot shower?_

She looked up suddenly, confused. Gibbs sat across from her, alone, watching her. He noticed her expression.

"Ziva? What is it?"

His kind voice brought her back to the present. She had missed him so much.

"I just realized I...I can't remember what it's like to be clean." _Not just clean_. To be comfortable, warm, full... she had been dirty and hungry and in pain for so long. She couldn't remember how it felt to sleep on a mattress surrounded by pillows and blankets. She couldn't recall what pizza tasted like. Everything they were flying towards seemed unfamiliar and frightening.

Gibbs nodded, and somehow she knew he truly understood. "You will. You'll be home soon."

She shook her head slightly. "If that is true, we are flying the wrong direction. Israel is the other way, Gibbs."

It was his turn to shake his head. "I said 'home,' Ziva."

She looked down at her dirty hands and fingernails and felt a lump rise in her throat.

"I no longer have a home."

"You always have a home with us."

The kindness in his voice was overwhelming. A tear slid silently down her cheek. She had always been Daddy's little spy. Israel's daughter. Then she became Gibbs' pupil. The Navy's investigator. Tony and McGee's teammate. But she had turned her back on all those things, and now she was truly alone, even more alone that she had been in the prison camp.

Finally, Ziva looked up in despair.

"Gibbs...what do I do now?"

Gibbs leaned forward and squeezed her hand gently. "For now, just be, Ziva. Rest. We'll be home soon." He leaned back and she gratefully followed suit, leaning her head rest against the hard plastic seat.

_Just be..._ Right now, for the first time in her life, she was simply Ziva David.

And somehow, that was enough.

For the first time in months, she truly slept.

THE END

.


	5. Consider the Lilies

Consider The Lilies

Post-Aliyah Series part 5

By 88Keys

6/7/10

She crept behind the building to the patch of ground, hoping no one would call the cops. This was no longer her home.

She did not hold out much hope. It was not the right time of year for lilies, or anything else to be blooming.

A tangle of dry stems and overgrown weeds greeted her.

But there, through the tangle of rubbish, one white lily stood, tall and proud like hope.

She reached to pick it, but withdrew her hand. She had no right. They were both survivors.

Gently she stroked a petal as tears slid down her cheeks.


End file.
